1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling current consumption of a mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a smart phone refers to a terminal that combines advantages of a mobile communication terminal, i.e., a personal communication services terminal, and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) terminal, and incorporates data communication functions, such as schedule management, still image photographing, moving image photographing, facsimile transmission/reception, and Internet access, with the mobile communication terminal functions, such as voice call-related functions.
In addition, a terminal with a camera module that includes mobile communication capability, e.g., a Samsung Galaxy Camera, that mainly serves to photograph images, but also includes mobile communication capability as a main function is referred to as a mobile terminal, with the mobile communication module having a built-in camera also is referred to as a mobile terminal.
As the performance of such a mobile terminal improves, applications adapted to the mobile terminal's operating system rapidly increase, and the functions of the mobile terminal increase. Due to these various applications and functions, the amount of current consumed by a mobile terminal is on an increasing trend, and technologies for reducing this current consumption have been developed.
In a conventional mobile terminal, however, a greater voltage drop occurs at low temperature than at room temperature when current consumption is rapidly increased. Therefore, a problem arises in that, despite a battery of a mobile terminal being sufficiently charged, the battery cannot normally provide the mobile terminal with sufficient current, and thus the mobile terminal can power off or malfunction. In particular, a mobile terminal with a camera module having a lens barrel unit will frequently cause such problems because current consumption rapidly increases as the lens barrel unit moves, in particular at the initialization of the camera module.